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Google Chrome OS

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So I just played around a bit. Wanted to try out the Apps page, but says you gotta log in using your Google.com account. Tried and just said my username/password was incorrect and once you get that you can't go back so I restarted the VM and tried a few more times, didn't work each time. Gmail and everything else worked fine.

Very basic, really slow even with 1GB of ram in the VM. I know it's an early early early alpha type release so it's to be expected.

Very basic "OS". Like most of us thought after yesterdays webcast ... it's a really big web browser.
 
So I just played around a bit. Wanted to try out the Apps page, but says you gotta log in using your Google.com account. Tried and just said my username/password was incorrect and once you get that you can't go back so I restarted the VM and tried a few more times, didn't work each time. Gmail and everything else worked fine.

Very basic, really slow even with 1GB of ram in the VM. I know it's an early early early alpha type release so it's to be expected.

Very basic "OS". Like most of us thought after yesterdays webcast ... it's a really big web browser.

Running it in a prebuilt VM with unknown options likely not optimized for your machine is pretty non-optimal, in its defense. It could very well be slow as poo, but it should be installed native before we can evaluate it on performance... Or atleast installed in a VM customized to leverage your specific hardware.
 
Oh I know. I didn't expect it to blaze or anything. It did boot in about 5 seconds and logged on in about another 2 seconds.

It honestly feels cluttered and I don't like the fact that you can't seem to minimize to a desktop (at least not that I could find).
 
Oh I know. I didn't expect it to blaze or anything. It did boot in about 5 seconds and logged on in about another 2 seconds.

It honestly feels cluttered and I don't like the fact that you can't seem to minimize to a desktop (at least not that I could find).


Was there anything of a file manager?
 
I was thinking more of a GUI to work with the file system...

Say I have pictures on a camera, does this OS even support uploading them?
 
I just tried this out in VMware. No file Manager I could find, Also could not find a way to shut it down without issuing it from Vmware. Just a glorified web browser from what I can see.
 
so from what i hear, it is going to be offered only with specific hardware:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/20/google.os/index.html said:
The first Chrome OS netbooks will be available in late 2010, Pichai said. It will not be available as a download to run and install. Instead, Chrome OS is only shipping on specific hardware from manufacturers Google has partnered with. That means if you want Chrome OS, you'll have to purchase a Chrome OS device

maybe it is just me, but that doesn't seem like it would be very good for trying to become popular. or am i missing something here?
 
I see what your saying, however if it's trying to become popular - popular products don't require the enduser to build it yourself (a la windows preinstalled - most people don't install it themselves). If it's completely open source which they also mentioned, we should have the ability to install it ourselves on whatever we want also.
 
i am just wondering why people would want to use chrome os over any other linux distro in this case. either way, it isn't windows and i can just imagine a majority of people not like it for the same reason they don't like linux.
 
I just tried this out in VMware. No file Manager I could find, Also could not find a way to shut it down without issuing it from Vmware. Just a glorified web browser from what I can see.

Same here :-/

It really feels like a web browser... i couldn't even find anything to use the hard drive for... it's all pulled off the web.

I hope they build onto it, cause it its current state, i can't see any use for it... MAYBE an instant on device... one that does very little. :screwy:
 
I could see this being used for embedded systems, that like you said CompuTamer, do very little. This would be perfect for the lightweight, cheap option that many embedded systems have, without the bloat of Windows, but still being able to connect and interact with the web.
Just a thought.
 
It's funny because my dad (a computer science professor) has been telling me for about 10+ years that he believes that browsers will eventually replace OS's. I always told him that that made no sense. I'll have to show him this. He seems to envision the future much like Google does, and he may be right too. I tend to predict consumer trends poorly, or at least not follow them. e.g. I don't like wireless. I find it unreliable, slow, and annoying and prefer to wire my house with gigabit ethernet ports than use wireless and carry cables. He is the opposite... he even bought wireless/bluetooth mice, keyboards, printers, etc.

I suspect the non-poweruser public would find the idea of everything being always available, no matter where they are, appealing, and the need to run things outside of a browser would not be big for some people who just websurf, email, and run office programs. Google can easily get all that into the cloud. I do suspect this is where everything is going, although I'm not sure I like it.

I expect this will eventually be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. I'm a well known MS hater around here, but I really do believe that there is no future in closed source proprietary software for ultra common tasks, like OS's, word processors, spreadsheets, email programs, etc. If a programmer wants to get paid, he'll be writing web pages or proprietary applications for a specific purpose. (e.g. If Coke uses some kind of system to track orders and shipping of bottles, good luck finding that in the Gentoo repositories...)

Most programmers work on in house apps anyways... that wouldn't change that much.

I think Google will do quite well in the netbook market, for people who want cheap, reliable, secure, and simple on their netbook and who like the idea of cloud storage. Also, if you tell people it's Linux, they get all scared and run away screaming, even though Linux has come so far from those days of having to compile all your own software, write your own config files, etc. If you say the OS is by Google, people will trust the brand name and try it, and you can count on Google making it easy and making it "just work." That is something people will give up versatility and power for, especially if they don't use the power in the first place. Netbooks are by far the fastest growing sector of the market. I bought one about a year ago (Dell Mini 9) and I use it more than any other computer now, as I can bring it around the house, sit in bed, watch TV on the couch, whatever, and most of what I do doesn't need power. When I need more power, I just go use the quad core. My friend has only a netbook (eee) and it works fine for her. She is a grad student, so I'm sure price is part of that, and not a techie (she can and does use tech well, she just doesn't isn't interested in technology for its own sake).
 
I expect this will eventually be the beginning of the end for Microsoft. I'm a well known MS hater around here, but I really do believe that there is no future in closed source proprietary software for ultra common tasks, like OS's, word processors, spreadsheets, email programs, etc. If a programmer wants to get paid, he'll be writing web pages or proprietary applications for a specific purpose. (e.g. If Coke uses some kind of system to track orders and shipping of bottles, good luck finding that in the Gentoo repositories...)

Most programmers work on in house apps anyways... that wouldn't change that much

Do you realize how much you are conflicting with yourself??


This is not "the end of Microsoft".

What's really going to happen is ChromeOS is going to take another small slice of the OS market share pie, probably more than the EEEPC's with linux took, but still less than the 1% that all of linux combined takes up. Microsoft might lose a few [ten?]-thousand Windows XP sales on netbooks. They are not going to go bankrupt.
 
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